"the 11th hour" with brian williams starts now. covering tonight on trump and russia. robert mueller gets specific requesting documents from the white house that cover 13 categories. and an explosive report on paul manafort and his offer to update a russian billionaire on the trump campaign. also live reports tonight from dual natural disasters. puerto rico and mexico city. as the 11th hour gets under way on a wednesday night. >> goong once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. tonight the damage from these two natural disasters is very nearly indescribeable.

we're going to get reports from both the hurricane damage in puerto rico and the earthquake aftermath in mexico. both of them later on in this broadcast. it is also day 244 of the trump administration, and tonight we have new stories and new headlines that reveal a lot about where the mueller investigation is right now, how extensive it is, how lasting an effort it is. the latest news tonight comes from the "washington post" and zeros in on paul manafort, specifically his communications during the campaign before trump became the republican nominee. it says he offered to provide briefings on the race to a russian billionaire according to people familiar with the discussions. manafort wrote in the july 7th, 2016 e-mail, quote, if he needs private briefings, we can accommodate. that july 7th e-mail dam at a busy time for the campaign. manafort wrote it less than a

month after he sat in at that june meeting with donald trump jr. jared kushner and a group of russians. two weeks later trump accepts the republican nomination nor president. it happened the same day trump campaign adviser carter page delivered a speech in moscow criticizing u.s. policy. that brings us to today's other big news about special counsel mueller. first reported by "the new york times" under the headline mueller seeks white house documents related to trump's actions as president. the times and "washington post" both report mueller wants documents in 13 different areas, all separate categories. they include former national security adviser michael flynn's departure from the white house, his interview with the fbi and his conversations with the russian ambassador, and the warning the deputy attorney general saly yates gave the white house about flynn. mueller also wants all material receipting to paul manafort. he wants records related to that trump tower meeting set up by

done junior. then there's the firing of fbi director jim comey. mueller wants all documents related to meetings between trump and coatroom and records of any discussions about comey's firing. and records about the statement sean spicer made the night comey was fired. he also wants information on that oval office meeting with the two russians the next day. the one where trump reportedly called comey a nutjob in front of the visitors and said firing him had relieved great pressure on him. perhaps the most sobering note in all of today's coverage is this quote in the "washington post" from a government official about the power and staying power of mueller's sweeping effort. quote, i am convinced that no matter where they end up, this investigation will run to completion even if they fire mueller. there is a feeling of inevitable now that we didn't have before, not of the outcome of the investigation, but that there will be an outcome. there is no escaping this thing,

whatever the conclusions. let's bring in our lead-off panel tonight. ashley parker, peter baker, mika oh yang. welcome to you all. peter, we welcome you to our new york studios. how does this explain, flesh out the work of mueller? we've all been -- you less than others, we've all been looking at him from afar. >> right. i think it shows he's casting a broad net and he's examining the kinds of things that have been in the news now for several months. and he's looking at the most controversial elements of the trump presidency. the firing of jim comey, the firing of michael flynn. these are big, big moments. the one that struck me the most, though, asking for the records involving the meeting with sergey kislyak, the foreign

minister of russia and his ambassador. that is a big, big deal. because we're not just then asking about political issues or political conversations inside the white house. we're talking about foreign policy, national security, traditionally the most sensitive and most protected confidential communications of any president. that's a big deal. >> because you do know and have known more about the mueller effort than most of us, this also explains what we've seen in the hiring that's been going on and the teams he's set up, which would be a first-class washington law firm were it a stand alone firm s correct. >> exactly right. he has 17 prosecutors working for him. and when you talk to the lawyers in the trump circle, they are very struck by that. that says to them this is a serious effort. we're not going to get out of this easily because you don't higher 17 prosecutors if you don't plan to have a prosecution. now, with he don't know what the outcome is as the quote you just used from the "washington post" showed, but it does start to feel like this is going to head

somewhere? where? how fast? we don't know, but it's not going away. >> mia ka, these lawyers are the kinds of public servants who move in and out of the public sphere and private practice as mueller has over the years, but they are public servants. so hearing all that about this team mueller has put together, seeing these 13 categories of inquiry, if you were white house counsel or if you were trump's personal counsel, what would your defense be? >> i'd be very nervous in all of this. and i think what you saw with the corey lewandowski statement earlier today is you can see an attempt to say these people, manafort and flynn are bad apples and acting on their own. it wasn't authorized and doesn't have anything to do with me. these 13 categories, now we're talking about actions by the president of the united states. it would be very difficult for them to say it was just other people during the campaign. this is now about the

president's actions as the president of the united states. >> ashley, the relentlessness of this inquiry and now learning as much as we've learned about the broad-based nature of it, what must this be doing to the psychy of donald trump and the circle of people around him? >> well, it's not great for moral within the west wing on two levels. first of all, even some of the mid-level stafrds, low level staffers who say probably correctly they in theory have nothing to worry about, it occupancy just a tremendous amount of head space, because their concern is now that they're going to have to hire a lawyer if they accidentally walked in on a conversation and it means that they're going to have to speak to mueller and his investigators at some point. so it's an added stress for some people who in theory working in the white house should be a wonderful, stressful, exhausting but exill rating experience and it's sort of a blemish to put it mildly. and then for the president

himself, russia is an issue that consumes him. it's always in the backdrop as i remembering. it consumes him to varying degrees. these stories are reflecting actual actions in progress in the investigation, it's a sort of thing that we see, you know, this white house right now is being more disciplined, actually, they felt like they had a good experience at the u.n. general kelly brought some streamlining there. this is the sort of thing that makes the president send out a tweet or make an inopportune statement and give mueller more to do to do der and something else to look into. >> investigators believe the exchange of e-mails which reflects manafort's willingness to profit from his prominent role alongside trump created a potential opening for russian interests at the highest level of a u.s. presidential campaign according to people familiar with the probe.

it has turned out, ashley, that manafort is a big apparently juicy target for mueller and a big place for mueller to look for a flip. >> that's exactly right. i mean, two things from that story in the post today. first of all, you know, two weeks before donald trump accepts the republican nomination, you have manafort proactively and sort of aggressively trying to brief about the state of the campaign which is exactly what russia wanted. there's no evidence to support that that briefing happened but it shows his state of mind and he was also exact lg the mark that the russians wanted. someone who was concerned about debts he was owed for his already sort of shady consulting in eastern europe and he was trying to leverage his position on the trump campaign. so, again, we don't know what happened, but if you're the russians, you're looking at him and you're saying this is a guy where we have a potential in and now mueller is looking at him

and saying this is a guy where we have a potential in for very different reasons. >> and mika, counselor, does this look to you anything but robert mueller trying to flip paul manafort? >> i think that's right. paul manafort has so many vulnerabilities here, so much prosecutorial pressure can be brought to bear on him. its not just about his actions while the campaign chairman, but it's his financial dealings, other unrelated potential financial charges that could come against him for his dealings in new york. there's a whole lot here that can be brought to bear against manafort and it's important to remember that he's also being investigated by the new york attorney general. and what's important about that is that president trump could not pardon manafort for any crimes brought under new york state law. only federal law. >> i'm sitting across from the former new york times man in moscow. what are the russians making of all this and what was your knowledge of his relationship

with russian characters? >> well, this guy is somebody i met when i was there. he was one of the young ohly garks who came along in his 20s, 30s, made literally billions of dollars. he had sort of piratey image to him. but he was always part of the power structure. that's the important thing to remember here. he's not an independent actor. he's part of putin's circle. they didn't get along always. they had some public skraubls, but there is a connection as the post said to the kremlin. when paul manafort was offering to brief him obviouslyel it was a business tie but there's a political context that can't be missed. >> so of course he would welcome a briefing from the inner workings of one of only two campaigns for president. >> well and especially who had thought to come into the united states, had been barred at various points from even entering the united states because of concerns by the state department about his ties to various criminal activity in

russia. so the idea that he having been barred even traveling to the united states would suddenly have ak sets to the upper levels of a presidential campaign is a big deal. >> i want to show you the cover of tomorrow's new york daily news. it's quite possible they can take libts that "the new york times" can't on their cover. this says i want your papers, russia probe heats up with request for info. harken back to ken vogue yell of the new york times, walks into a steakhouse, stumbles upon these two named lawyers. that luncheon really did speak to potential strategy and how they were going to approach mueller. mueller has now turned into a vacuum cleaner, and i guess you can fight him every step of the way or you can say we have nothing to hide, enjoy this stack of papers. >> exactly. one of the things they were talking about at that lunch were those document requests. i think ty cobb, the special counsel to the president said he

had already personally reviewed three of these 13 cat dpoers and processed the documents and so forth. the potential conflict there is where do you draw a line? you know, there is this president and there's this investigation, but there is also the white house and future presidents. and one of the things don mcgahn the white house counsel is concerned about is do we surrender executive privilege or attorney-client privilege for future privilege by making these documents available to mr. mueller. that is not -- ty cobb makes it very clear he wants to know everything he possibly can within reason because he wants this investigation to go away. his theory is these documents will show the president didn't do anything wrong and therefore they should turn them over. >> and it's not too lofty that don mcgahn defends the institution of the presidency. >> right. >> we often ask you and about donald trump and distractions. you were talking about his twitter habit in your last answer.

has u.n. week been distraction enough that we know he tweeted about the ratings of the emmy's, been distraction enough for donald trump and as i ask that it's occurring to me distractions cut both ways. are they actually going to try to get health care through under the banner of the republican party with this growing and enormous distraction of the mueller inquiry? >> well, i think the u.n. to start with has been a distraction in a positive sense. my understanding from talking to people is that the president's mood was pretty good going into the u.n. just to begin before he gave that speech and that he enjoyed that speech. if you look at it, his policy advisers got some of what they wanted out of it and he got some of those rhetorical flower ishz he enjoys like calling the north korea rocket man. so it had a little bit of something for everyone. and i think on health care they're definitely pushing for this. if there's some things the president understands it's first of all a deal and secondly when

a deal is slipping away and they know that they basically have until the end of the month to pass it with just 50 votes. and that's why you're seeing the president incredibly engaged. it's unclear if this will actually pass, but they are going full steam ahead and you saw that on everything from their decision to send mike pence back from the u.n. to go to the senate health care lunch on tuesday and then head back to new york for more u.n. and from the way the president has taken to twitter because that is him unfiltered where his mind is and what he cares about. >> i can't tell you by how much we are in your debt all of you on our lead-off panel tonight to talk about the events of the day and especially the coverage in the "washington post" and "the new york times." ashley parker, peter baker, mika oh yang, thank you all. coming up after our first break, this destruction they are still uncovering in puerto rico. there's no power anywhere on the island where 3.5 mlt american citizens are in the dark tonight, many of them in bad

shape. we'll get a live report. and then later, day three for president trump at the u.n. in new york. what he said today about africa and what iran said about him. a lot to tell you about as the 11th hour continues. hey! are you taking the tissue test? yep, and my teeth are yellow. time for whitestrips. crest whitestrips whiten... ...25x better than a leading whitening toothpaste. nice smile! thanks! i crushed the tissue test. crest. healthy, beautiful smiles for life.

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choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. welcome back to the 11th hour. we have never before witnessed three category 4 storms making u.s. landfall in the same hurricane season until this hurricane season. so it's that bad. and now hurricane maria has devastated puerto rico.

the entire island without power after the storm came ashore with 155 mile per hour initial winds. as much as 35 inches of rain. the mayor of san juan told msnbc earlier today the island could be without power for four to six months. puerto rico's governor has imposed a curfew from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. citing continued flood warnings, the noo he had to keep the streets clear for repair and rescue teams. we are joined tonight by nbc's gabe gu terr rez. it was 24 hours ago when we last talked to you. you've been through a lot, but the people of that island and the infrastructure there has been through a lot. how can you vibe it tonight? >> reporter: hi there, brian. it has been a difficult day for this island as you mentioned. and behind me you can see it is dark, pitch black. and most of this island virtually all of it, without

power. we're hearing the hum of industrial generators this this part of the island. much of -- many streets in san juan are flooded, and it's very difficult to get around. as you mentioned, broin, a curfew is in effect and local authorities are just beginning the recovery effort here. search and rescue missions are set to get under way. fema is on the ground and preparing rescue missions tomorrow. the mayor and local authorities here were busy tonight cleaning up the streets and trying to get this population center back on track. but, brian, the big question right now is what we don't know. the unknown, because communications have been down for so long today, cell phone carriers are down. really only one major one is working at this point and it's tough to communicate with other parts of the island. when this massive storm came onshore earlier this morning on the southeast part of the island and cut through it, you know, there was flooding roads turned into rivers and the question is

right now how long will the recovery take in some parts. we don't have any firm numbers on injuries or deaths, but authorities say that this was a catastrophic hit and san juan is heavily impacted right now. the damage just beginning to be assessed, brian. >> gabe, we watched your first emergence from inside the storm earlier today, and that, of course, is being repeated across that island by civilians tonight. gabe gutierrez, our correspondent on the ground in san juan. thank you so much. we are joined now on the telephone by lewisry vera march an, the secretary of state for puerto rico. mr. secretary, we have a number of people in our audience who would like to know how they can help. quite simply, tell us what does puerto rico need? >> well, basically good evening to you all. thanks for the chance to join you this evening, brian. and puerto rico right now, we are working closely with the red

cross and through the red cross they have aid for the island and certainly we are waiting for some support also from fema. we're waiting for 1.6 millimeters of water that's come in in a barge on saturday together with generators. it's been a long day. i just got off the phone with mayor of a coastal town that's flooded. we have probably 50 families on their rooftops. the water is rising. got a lot of, as you may know, we have a central mountain ridge, and all that mouth of that water is coming and pouring down to the coastal towns. and right now we are working with search and rescue teams to get these families off the rooftops and communications, as i just overheard, is a

challenge. and certainly we're looking forward for aid. principally we're in need of support for all these families that need to build a new home. in some communities 80% of the homes were simply devastated. i'm talking about homes, mobile homes, wood structures with tin roofs that there's nothing to be found now where they used to lie. so these are homeless families at this point in time. we're working closely with habitat for humanity to make them -- rebuild their lives. and right now we are still in the process of saving lives. winds out, now we have lots of water to deal with, lots of flooding. and usually when there's more danger of losing lives, so all

the government are concentrated in making sure that will people that are in flood prone zones make it to safe ground. and according to the forecast we'll be having tons of water up till sunday. so with the saturday soils that were left by irma and now all this rain that's coming with maria, we suddenly have our hands full and at the moment the governor issued a curfew to make sure that our search and rescue teams can have the space to do their work. >> well, mr. secretary, we're all thinking of you. 3.5 million american citizens, those who have been to puerto rico know them as welcoming, indust reous people. they have contributed so much to the united states of america.

we are hoping now the united states of america does everything in its power for the people and the infrastructure of puerto rico because you just heard the need is massive and the need is urge ent. lewisry vera march in, puerto rico's secretary of state. our thanks and very best wishes for you. coming up after another break here for us, iran's president responds to our own president. and senate republicans moving ahead on that plan to repeal and replace obamacare. all of it when the 11th continues. could save thousands. you should probably buy me dinner. no. go to lendingtree.com for a new home loan or refinance. receive up to five free offers and choose the loan that's right for you. our average customer could lower their monthly bills by over three hundred dollars. go to lendingtree.com right now.

the iran deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the united states has ever entered into. frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the united states, and i don't think you've heard the last of it. believe me. >> in president trump's first ever address to the united nations general assembly just yesterday, he took aim at the iran nuclear deal, arguing it was an embarrassment to the united states, as you heard. today iran's president roux haen responded in his u.n. address. >> it will be a great pity if this agreement were to be destroyed by rogue newcomers to the world of politics. the world will have lost a great opportunity by violating its

international commitment. the new u.s. administration only destroys its own credibility and undermines international confidence in negotiating with it or accepting its word or promise. >> he went on to make an apparent reference to trump's comments as, quote, ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric. tonight nbc news is reporting that trump may be leaning toward dessert fieg the iran nuclear deal, putting the deal in the hands of congress. with us tonight, one of the authors of that piece, vivian nbc news national political reporter and you see there our friend phil rucker, white house bureau chief for the "washington post" and an misnin political analyst. vivian, you have lived and worked in the middle east among other places. what chain of events does it trigger if donald trump's decision is to dessert fie this

treaty and how does it affect our allies? >> well, first let's talk about what it meeds to be dessert fied. under the iran nuclear deal the president has to certify that every 90 days he has to certify that iran is complying with the obligations of the nuclear agreement. and so if the president decides before the october 15th deadline not to recertify, essentially that could trigger an opportunity, a 60 day window for lawmakers to essentially roll back some of the sanctions that were eased during the iran nuclear agreement and some of those that really provided enormous relief to the iranian economy, to the iranian people. and so that would be sort of the short term expectation is that some of those sanctions could actually be reimplemented if lawmakers chose to pursue that route. long-term we're talking some serious implications for the diplomatic relationship that was established as a result of this agreement. and so that could really have severe consequences. already you saw this war of

words playing out at the u.n. general assembly this week, but that could really get exacerbated. already there's so much concern about iran's involvement in the region and different areas, you know, supporting the regime in syria, supporting groups like hez bowl la or some of the more hard line ma lishas in iraq. so without sort of that diplomatic channel to say, you know, we don't want you to do this, we need to have consequences and this agreement is that sort of, you know, accountability, if you will to keep iran in line, without that a lot of people are concerned that iran will just say you know what? for get it. we're going to do whatever we want and so that is really something long-term we have to look at. >> that's exactly what we needed to know about this. and philip, this is one of those intersections or maybe just a collision between trump the campaigner and a campaign pledge in addition to i make the best deals, one of the worst deals i've ever seen was the iran

deem. but now he's playing with house money and now this affects all of us and it affects the nation's business as vivian was saying all the interconnectedness of our relationships. >> yeah. and it also will be a test and a signal for the international community about whether america can be trusted in these agreements, whether, you know, when we have a change in our democratic leadership here in the united states that that means that we would undo our treaty obligations and our agreements around the world. and it comes at an important moment diplomatically when we're trying to rally and unite support around the world to take on north korea and try to slow the nuclear growth in north korea. and, you know, it just raises some questions about whether our european allies who after two years of intensive negotiations with us and iran reached that agreement as a diplomatic achievement under president obama, whether they're going to be able to take america at its word going forward.

>> philip, i have to turn something of a corner between iran and health care in this country. i want to show you what president trump has said on twitter tonight. you already know this. senator doctor bill cassidy is a class act who really cares about people and their health care. he doesn't lie. just wants to help people. quote, i would not sign graham/cassidy if it did not include coverage o of pre-existing conditions. it does a great bill, repeal and replace. philip, first of all, where did this come from? we've dawn from zero to 60 in no time. we've got 11 days to decide on a sixth of the u.s. economy. we're at deaf con five on hell care. where did this come from? >> well, it's a bill that cassidy and senator lindsey graham from south carolina put together. it has gained some quiet momentum very fast on capitol hill and there's this 11 day window as you noted before the send of this month when the senate republicans would

effectively be able to pass this with only 51 votes instead of 60. and there's really an all in effort here by the trump trump administration to try to make the magic happen. obviously a month or so ago the health care effort failed in fairly epic fashion on the floor with that vote of no by senator john mccain. there's an effort now led by vice president pence and others in the administration to try to muscle this through somehow to convince senator lisa murkowski of alaska, to convince john mccain of arizona to get on board with this and live up to their campaign promtsz. but they're moving so fast, a lot of the details of this bill are not yet known. the congressional budget office has not yet scored it meaning we don't know the full impact and reach of what this would mean for people's lives out in the country and i think those are some of the questions that a lot of voters are having at this point as they see this moving forward full steam ahead. >> and as they say what could go wrong? the truth is that before we

straight up stole her from the "associated press," vivian was in that white house briefing room every day. and so i ask you this with your political background, is this confusing now for hill republicans because just a week ago trump was talking about he was all about chuck and nancy and now this republican stalwart getting behind the effort to repeal and replace? >> at this point i think he'll take any help he can get to get this thing passed, the ap, speaking of which published an astonishing report that senator graham was the latest lawmaker to be over heard having an conversation and -- >> at national airport. >> tonight where the ap actually heard him talking to another lawmaker. they speculated it was john mccain telling them i know that it's imperfect but let's just get this passed. it's so aston i recollect that we are so far into this game they had seven years to perfect

this bill and after several failed attempts we are now at a point where they will even take an imperfect bill as long as it's not obamacare and it really kind of shows where this administration is right now and where lawmakers are in terms of just being -- having a cohesive unit to really get things done once and for all. and so it's going to be interesting. i think they just want to show their voters that we got it done at this point at any cost. >> think how much of a percentage of our news this week comes from people talking too loud in public and being overheard. interesting thought. thank you both. as always, coming up, candidate donald trump declared his presidency 827 days ago. our own katy tur detailed it all in her new book unbelievable. she joins us here tonight to talk about it when we come right back. better? yeah. good thing because stopping never crosses your mind. band-aid® brand. stick with it™

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nbc news correspondent katy tur was a foreign correspondent in the months before her life would all be consumed by donald trump's presidential run. she was based out of our nbc news london bureau when she came back to this country just for a quick trip to fulfill a request for the make a wish organization. again, quick trip to the u.s. and back, and she's still here, because donald trump happened along the way. she kron kels all of it in her new book unbelievable, my front row seat to the craziest campaign in american's history, which we're proud to announce has reached number two on "the new york times" bestseller list. behind a book called what happened. i don't know what that's about. i haven't heard of it prior to tonight. but we welcome our friend katy tur here. >> thanks for having me, brian. >> so we had you. we lost you to london. and then points all over the world. what happened? >> that's a good question.

it's by hillary clinton's book to find out. >> you were back here just long enough to cover a donald trump event. >> so i came back to do -- to fulfill the make a wish wish and i was standing around the newsroom when a colleague of ours was trying to figure out who could cover donald trump. and he said hey, katy is just standing around. she can do this and that is how this whole thing started. i did a couple of stories and then suddenly the president of nbc news said katy, we're going to put you on this full time. it will just be six weeks. >> what do you think trump made of you initially and what did you make of him initially? >> well, i was the first network tv correspondent to follow his campaign. maybe the first correspondent period to follow his campaign full time from basically the beginning, from june 30th, my very first rally of 2015.

we were just standing around a backyard pool. all i knew of donald trump at that time was what i saw on the apprentice, what i read in the tabloids here in new york city. he was a bombastic fellow. i didn't know what to make of the campaign or how seriously to take him. he's standing on this stage and i don't have any reason to believe that he knows who i am. he's standing on the stage and then suddenly i hear my name, katy, you haven't even looked up at me once. >> i was tweet wg what he was saying on my phone. and there is donald trump looking for attention, looking for approval from day one. and that's how the relationship progressed all 510 days or so, charming and attacking and charming and attacking. >> and you had been on local news at our local nbc station which you theorized in the book he may have known you and recognized you from that. the one montage i am not going

to air tonight because i want to be the only interview you do in connection with the book that doesn't air this monday tauj is donald trump calling your name, kind of goading you, trolling you, criticizing you, call for public skorn on you. there's no lyndon johnson expression, you've got some hard bark on you. you don't scare easily. but i know there were some scary times during that period. >> there were scary times certainly. and at one point nbc decided that they were going to send armed security with all of the correspondents that were covering donald trump, including me, exsecret servicemen and women mostly. and it followed after donald trump continued to single me out at rally after ali after rally. the one that got particularly bad was when he announced the muslim ban back in december of 2015. san bern dean notice had just

happened where the couple shot up that office party. donald trump is calling for a muslim ban. that was his solution to thisful he was saying the administration in power wasn't vetting people. and basically the media was kplis ent because we weren't reporting it. so when he called me out at that rally, the room was angry and they were scared and they all turned on me at once. and i remember thinking to myself, just smile and wave, because if you smile and wave, you diminish the tension. but when i looked at my phone and i saw that it was going off with text messages, with tweets, with calls from nbc news, with calls from my mother, i realized that it was a hairy situation and somebody on the trump team, a trump staff, found me and said these guys are going to walk you out, and it was two secret service agents. >> the book reads like a log

ride and you're witnessing what the country is going through right along with us, only the story is right smack in front of you. >> yeah. and there was so much of it that i didn't remember until i went back and i looked at my notes. some things that donald trump said that i had forgotten about completely. he would extinguish one controversy with the next. >> with every new page. i went through the same process. >> yeah. >> thanks to your research. >> same day. i mean, i had a stack of research a foot high. all of the logs, everything he said on any interview, anything he ever said to me, everything that he said at a rally. everything that i was told by donald trump supporters. all of the conversations i had behind the scenes, not only with trump but with his campaign staff. and my goal was to try and bring the reared back to that moment, to put it down on paper in a present tense setting so you could really feel what it was like. not burden you with foresight

and say this is ultimately what happened, but to have it down so that when you look back at the 2016 campaign, somebody will be able to say this is how it happened, this is what it looked like, this is what it tasted like, this is what it smelled like and this is what it felt like. >> katy tur is the only number two ranking new york times best-selling author who anchors a broadcast every afternoon on this very network. we are proud to call her our friend, proud to know her. the book is unbelievable. my front row seat to the craziest campaign in american history. good luck with it. >> thank you, by the way, forgetting my job here at the network. i owe it all to you. >> oh, please. i was doing the network a favor by prig you into this believe. a pleasure. thank you. >> thank you, brian. >> coming up, we'll have the latest again from mexico city. this search for survivors ongoing after yesterday's earthquake throughout central mexico.

a live report correspondent ron mott standing by. we'll go there right after this.

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welcome back to the 11th hour. the rescue workers we have in this scene to show you, that clenched fist that they raise above the crowd, that is urging people to be quiet so they can listen for children trapped in the are you able of a school that collapsed after that 7.1 earthquake shook central mexico yesterday afternoon. this scene was repeatedly on and on today. they pulled at least 25 bodies from the are you able, all but four of them children. but there have been some phenomenal rescues, just enough to bu we hopes across mexico. the death toll stands at 230 after over two dozen buildings in mexico city collapsed and countless other private homes. nbc news correspondent ron mott is there for us tonight. ron, good evening.

it's good to see you, my friend. i've watched rainfall on the rescue effort today and i've watched your reporting all day and evening. i to begin by asking you about aftershocks. first of all, they are very unsettling, not only for visiting journalists but for the people there and aftershocks, the big worry is these already weakened structures are going to come down altogether. >> reporter: right, brian. that's one thing we were just talking about, in fact, that the earth has remained still today. as far as we know maybe if there was one, there may been just one, because it's been relatively safe and sound today, which is great news for efforts like the ones you see behind me. now, they just turned off the floodlights, brian, and we don't know exactly what that means because about three hours ago they did exactly the same thing and shortly afterwards we saw an ambulance turn its lights on and sirens on and leave the scene to the applause of a lot of the bystanders who are here.

we've seen the raised fit throughout the day not only at this scene but countless others around the capital. that means that they want people to be quiet. this was an employment agency and so shortly after the lunch hour, there are a lot of people in there, especially a lot of young people looking for work, meeting with counselors, checking out job leads when this earthquake hit. we were told that there were a nobody of people who did in fact survive and believe are still trapped in this building. we don't know the size of that group on the fourth floor. and when the floor above them fell it fell in such a way that it left a triangle of life. so there is a pocket of air for those to be able to breathe. they have been able to get food and water to them. question that we have tonight because we have a heavy rain and some hailstones that these folks are in there and wet. that is going to be a major factor throughout the night here. time clearly of the essence here

but we do believe that there's a group upwards of 12, 14 people in this building still alife and that is the case as we think around mexico city they are still -- so much attention paid on that elementary school where unfortunately we've already had a loss of 24 people, adults and children so the effort is ongoing here and obviously when the sun comes back in the morning we expect that to quick en. >> ron, thanks for your work in telling their toers. we're thinking about the folks there. we're praying for the folks there. what a terrible situation throughout central mexico. nbc news correspondent ron mott. coming up, the ad lib and the reaction it caused when the president spoke to a group of leaders at the u.n. here in new york today. we're back with that after this.

last thing before we go here tonight. the president hosting a gathering of african nations at the u.n. it starred off well enough with

the president listing nations in attendance. >> i'm greatly honored to host this lunch to be joined by the leaders of codid he vier ethiopia, approximate began that, beginee, nam bea, senegal, uganda and south africa. >> the problem in that list is there's no nam bea. that's not a place in africa or anywhere else. he said it again later when complimenting no, ma'am bea's health system. then came an ad lib during the portion of the speech about african prosperity. >> africa has tremendous business potential. i have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. i congratulate you. >> and that didn't go over well. to quote the "washington post," trump seemed to think the remark was complimentary. he also seemed oblivious to

ininsensitivety. in fairness to trump we should probably award him partial credit for refrapg to telling the group i love africa, tonight on "all in" -- >> robert mueller is an honorable man. hopefully he comes up with an honorable solution. he was with the campaign, as you know, for a short period of time. then, the backlash to the new senate republican health care bill grows. >> there's a new jimmy kimmel test for you. it's called the lie detector test. >> built his career preaching fiscal responsibility busting taking private planes. >> we're wasting significant